Over-Arousal as a Mechanism between Alcohol and Intimate Partner Violence

描述（由申请人提供）：我们认为酒精的使用与IPV的频率和严重程度的增加有关，这是通过酒精在中毒上升肢体和BAC峰值期间的皮质和心理生理唤醒作用引起的过度唤醒过程，再加上暴力夫妇独特的行为和情感模式。我们假设，在酒精的影响下，与痛苦的非暴力（DNV）伴侣相比，痛苦的暴力（DV）伴侣在对唤起性伴侣刺激的反应中调节情绪的难度更大。因此，本研究将利用脑电图（EEG）、心理生理学和瞳孔反应测量来研究酒精对暴力（DV）伴侣和非暴力（DNV）伴侣在观看唤起性伴侣刺激时调节情绪唤醒能力的影响。从每对家庭暴力伴侣中随机抽取一名伴侣，并将其与一名性别相同且关系痛苦相似的DNV伴侣配对，以参与实验。为了验证过度唤醒是酒精与IPV频率和严重程度增加相关的一种机制这一整体假设，被选中的伴侣将参加一个平衡的安慰剂阶段和酒精管理阶段，在此期间，将在情绪调节任务中收集唤醒的脑电图、心理生理学和瞳孔反应测量值。本研究包括一个刺激习得阶段和两个情绪调节阶段。在刺激获取环节中，受试者将通过研究人员编制的“夫妻问题量表”（CPI），通过一段关于分歧的视频来获取用于情绪调节任务的伴侣刺激。将选择视频片段，其中DV和DNV合作伙伴表现出蔑视、好战、批评、防御、阻挠和中立行为，在情绪调节任务期间呈现给合作伙伴。被选中的伴侣（DV， DNV）将在两个不同的场合返回实验室完成研究的情绪调节部分。参与者将饮用酒精饮料或安慰剂饮料（酒精和安慰剂的平衡条件），并完成情绪调节任务，在此期间将播放唤起性和中性刺激片段。数据将使用重复测量方差分析与受试者之间的因素。我们预计，在唤起性刺激中，DV伴侣会比DNV伴侣经历更大的唤醒。我们还预计，在唤起性刺激中，家庭暴力伴侣比家庭暴力伴侣在调节情绪方面会遇到更大的困难，而且这种影响在饮酒期间会加剧。这项研究的发现将提供确凿的证据，证明酒精与IPV有关，这是一种过度兴奋的机制。此外，这些过程可以通过生物反馈和神经反馈等方法进行新的治疗干预，以增加行为灵活性，减少家庭暴力夫妇的饮酒和IPV。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): We believe that alcohol use is related to the increase in frequency and severity of IPV through a process of over-arousal resulting from the cortically and psycho physiological arousing effects of alcohol during the ascending limb of intoxication and at peak BAC compounded by the unique behavioral and affective patterns of violent couples. We hypothesize that distressed violent (DV) partners will have greater difficulty regulating emotion in response to evocative partner stimuli under the influence of alcohol compared to distressed nonviolent (DNV) partners. As such, this study will utilize electroencephalography (EEG), psychophysiology and pupillary response measures to investigate the effects of alcohol on the ability to regulate emotional arousal when viewing evocative partner stimuli in distressed violent (DV) partners compared to distressed nonviolent (DNV) partners. One partner from each DV couple will be pseudo-randomly selected and yoked to a DNV partner of the same sex and comparable relationship distress for participation in the experiment. To test the overall hypothesis that over-arousal is a mechanism through which alcohol is associated with increases in the frequency and severity of IPV, the selected partners will participate in a counter-balanced placebo session and alcohol administration session during which EEG, psychophysiology and pupillary response measurements of arousal will be collected during an emotion regulation task. The study is comprised of one Stimuli Acquisition Session and two Emotion-Regulation Sessions. During the Stimuli Acquisition Session, partner stimuli for use in the emotion-regulation task will be acquired through a video-taped discussion of a disagreement via the researcher facilitated Couple's Problem Inventory (CPI). Segments of the videos will be selected where the DV and DNV partners display Contempt, Belligerence, Criticism, and Defensiveness, Stonewalling and neutral behaviors for presentation to the partner during the emotion regulation task. The selected partners (DV, DNV) will return to the laboratory on two separate occasions for the completion of the Emotion-Regulation Sessions of the study. Participants will consume either an alcohol beverage or placebo beverage (counter-balanced alcohol and placebo conditions) and complete the emotion-regulation task during which evocative and neutral stimulus clips will be shown. The data will be analyzed using repeated measures ANOVA with a between-subjects factor. We expect that DV partners will experience significantly greater arousal than DNV partners during evocative stimuli. We also expect that DV partners will experience greater difficulty regulating emotion during evocative stimuli than DNV partners and that this effect will be compounded during alcohol administration. Findings from this study will provide firm evidence that alcohol is associated with IPV a mechanism of over-arousal. Furthermore, these are processes that are amenable to novel therapeutic intervention via methods such as biofeedback and neurofeedback to increase behavioral flexibility and reduce drinking and IPV in DV couples.